LEBANON, Tenn. — The sharp rise in new teams in NASCAR’s Cup Series will not include Kyle Busch Motorsports, Busch said Friday at Nashville Superspeedway.
Kaulig Racing announced Friday afternoon that it would have two Cup teams next year, purchasing charters for each car from Spire Motorsports. Kaulig Racing will become the fifth new Cup team since the start of this year. Trackhouse Racing, 23XI Racing and Live Fast Motorsports are each in their first Cup season. GMS Racing, which competes in the Camping World Truck Series, announced this week that it will compete in Cup in 2022 but did state if it would be a full-time or part-time effort.
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Kyle Busch Motorsports has been among NASCAR’s best Camping World Truck Series teams for years, having won seven owner championships and 87 races since its inception in 2010. Busch was asked Friday about the prospects of his organization moving to Cup.
“I think it’s going to be a bit expensive the first couple of years for sure, but it might then start to equal out and be okay in the long run,” he said. “I guess if this was back in 2012, 2013 and when I had the Monster opportunity, then I would say, hell yeah. It makes sense to do it because you’ve got the upfront money. The only way to do it right is to get a charter, get some of that guaranteed income and stuff like that.
“I’ve not even looked into it, so I don’t know if there is any kind of charter stuff available or what not, but where we are at and what we are doing now – we’re in a good spot with the truck stuff. We are leaders of the (Toyota Racing Development) driver development program and the beginning of that. I say the beginning – we are the beginning of Truck on up. It’s probably just not going to happen.”
The finances also are an obstacle.
But if the finances ever worked?
“We could do it,” Busch said. “I feel like we could do it. There are some good people at KBM and it would be okay to do it. Just the financial piece of it isn’t there. I don’t see Toyota coming to us and giving us more or any more than what they are giving Denny (Hamlin) and his team. I know they are already maxed out on budget stuff with what they are giving us for our truck deal, and we would need more for the Cup deal.
“(Crew chief) Eric Phillips is obviously a great leader that could probably run that deal. I bet you that John Hunter (Nemechek) is a good enough driver that could run the car, so there are definitely some pieces there that could make the puzzle work, but again no serious efforts have been looked into.”